Field
The present disclosure generally relates to pump devices for use in operating rooms and in particular for supplying rinsing liquid during minimally invasive surgery, and to arrangements comprising corresponding pump devices.
Prior Art
In the field of medical technology for operating rooms, pumps are often present as part of medical apparatuses or as separate units connected to medical apparatuses. In the field of minimally invasive surgery, it is known to introduce rinsing liquid into the surgical site or into a body cavity encompassing the surgical site with the aid of a pump. The body cavity is hereby filled with and expanded by the rinsing liquid in such a way that the surgical site can be clearly seen by the operating surgeon, for example, through an endoscope. The rinsing liquid can be supplied and, if necessary, removed through the endoscope itself. It is also possible, however, for the rinsing liquid to be introduced into the surgical site through devices which are separate from the endoscope, such as, for example, catheters.
During the rinsing of a surgical site, it is of immense significance that a pressure of the rinsing liquid in the surgical site specified by the operating surgeon be maintained as exactly as possible. If the pressure drops below the specified value, the body cavity encompassing the surgical site can collapse. If a surgical procedure is carried out in such a moment using a suitable instrument, there is a risk that the tissue forming the body cavity will come into contact with the surgical instrument and become damaged thereby. If the pressure is above the specified value, the rinsing liquid can penetrate the tissue and/or the blood circulation of the patient, which can result in hypotonic hyper hydration with cardiovascular strain up to acute right ventricular failure. Such serious complications absolutely must be avoided.
In order to avoid corresponding complications, it is known in the prior art to hold the pump pressure of the pumps for rinsing liquid at a specified value as precisely as possible, i.e., to hold said pressure constant, and to balance inflowing and outflowing rinsing liquid. The purpose of the initially mentioned measure is to hold the pressure at the surgical site as constant as possible; the balancing of the rinsing liquid enables the control that no rinsing liquid penetrates the tissue and/or the blood circulation of the patient.
The disadvantage of this prior art is that changes in the basic conditions, which occur during a surgical procedure and influence the required and allowable pressure at the surgical site, are not regularly taken into account. In the prior art, changes of this type require, in principle, that the value specified for the pump pressure be changed manually, which is often not thought of during operations, however, and which can result in the aforementioned complications.
The laid-open application DE 40 24 676 A1 describes a device for rinsing the bladder, in which the necessary rinsing pressure is generated solely by means of an elevated placement of the rinsing-liquid reservoir. The device comprises a pressure regulator which is supposed to be disposed so as to be stationary with respect to the surgical site (e.g., by placing the pressure regulator on the abdomen of the patient), in order to thereby avoid any change in pressure which could result in a change in the height difference between the pressure regulator and the bladder. Given that the pressure regulator can also be disposed in a similar position with respect to the bladder in different patients, it is possible to work with patient-independent empirical values when adjusting the pressure regulator. The disadvantage of this prior art is that the pressure regulator comes into direct contact with the rinsing liquid and, therefore, must be regularly sterilized.